Oh How We've Grown
by Pyromagnet
Summary: Third installment to Slytherin's Three Musketeers. Time has past and Ethan, Severus, and Ripper are no longer as close as they once were.


Disclaimer: I don't own these characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Harry Potter Joss Whedon and J.K. Rowling do.

A/N: Okay people let me warn you before you read this. This is a sad fic. Ripper, Eth, and Sev do not all grow up to be happy guys and this portrays that. However there will be more added to this series and you do need to read this before you read the others which I will be writing. Okay people without further ado….. the story continues.

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Ethan stumbled as he walked back to his flat. He crashed into a trashcan and only stayed upright by grabbing onto a nearby mailbox. The past year had been hell. The only thing that kept Ethan going was Janus and how high he could get off causing chaos. It wasn't suppose to be like this.

Lily had understood and forgiven him. She said it wasn't totally his fault that Ly— that— But he had heard rumors. Ethan moaned and grabbed his head. Oh he didn't want to think about the rumors. The wizards weren't his concern anymore chaos was his world now. He had pledged his life to Janus and that's all he needed to think about.

Ethan swayed in front of his door. He was beginning to think clearly again. The drugs and alcohol were slowly leaving his system.

Ethan cursed as he dropped his keys for the third time. "Fuck it." He mumbled and made a sloppy hand signal over the door knob. The door frame glowed green before the door swung open.

Ethan had just kicked his keys inside when he was shoved from behind. Ethan fell to the ground. He turned onto his back and sat up when he heard the door slam shut. Black robe, hood up, wand at the ready. "Oh shit." Ethan breathed.

He started to try to get up but the man in black was on him in a second. The man straddled Ethan's chest. He used his knees to keep Ethan's arms at his sides. The chaos mage tried to buck him off but couldn't get him to budge. "What do you want from me?" Ethan asked.

The man ignored him and instead focused on the mage's arm. The man whispered a spell and Ethan's sleeve ripped revealing his tattoo that showed his ties to Eyghon. The guy touched the tip of his wand to the tattoo, "I have to…" The man whispered.

Ethan's eyes widened, he knew that voice but— "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Ethan started screaming as pain coursed through his body. The man covered Ethan's mouth to muffle the screams. Suddenly a see through image of Eyghon appeared and the man immediately stopped the spell. Tears were forming at the corner of his eyes while blood covered the hand that covered his mouth from where he had bitten his lip. The guy removed his hand and his knees so that they were on longer on top of Ethan's wrists. However he was still straddling Ethan's torso.

"What? You'd rather me fight back now? I'm sure I can accommodate you." Then he bucked and shoved the man back. He flew back a few feet and the hood that had been concealing his face fell back.

"I'm sorry Eth. I had to be sure." Remus said.

Ethan sat up surprise clearly showing in his eyes, "You could have fucking asked me!"

Remus sat up as well, "You could have lied. I don't know who to trust anymore."

At this point Ethan stood up and walked over to Remus to pull him off the floor. "What are you talking about?"

The normally quiet and calm werewolf shoved Ethan away and shouted, "Sirius! He betrayed Lily and James. Gave them to Voldemort. They're dead because of him."

"Lily's dead?" Ethan asked quietly.

"You didn't know?" Remus asked?

Ethan shook his head, "I didn't— I wasn't— What of Harry?"

"Alive. The Boy Who Lived." Remus gave a bitter laugh. "He defeated Voldemort. All he had to do was lose his parents. My friends……. If Sirius— he was suppose to be their secret keeper. We decided he was the strongest that he would be the best choice."

"Sirius? The goody two shoes Black? Well compared to the rest of them anyway. I may have not liked him but even I know he would never do that. It was probably Pettigrew, that boy should have been born a rat he squeaked—" Ethan was abruptly cut off as Remus punched him in the jaw.

"He killed Peter, along with thirteen other people in broad daylight." Remus stepped close to him to whisper in his ear, "You know what he was doing the Aurors got there? He was laughing. Even when they took him to Azkaban. Laughing."

Ethan reached for Remus's hand, "It—"

Remus moved his hand, "Don't you dare say it'll be okay! All my closest friends are gone, Peter, Lily, James, Lydia…… Sirius. You're all that's left." Remus paused and then growled, "And you use black magic. You're going to get yourself thrown into Azkaban."

Ethan's face hardened. "I am not a wizard of blood magic anymore. They don't care what I do as long as I don't use a stupid wand to do it. And I don't so there's nothing to worry about! I need to do magic and I'll take any type I can."

This time Remus grabbed Ethan by the shoulders, "Need to do magic? You do it to get high. Why? So you can drive us away? You drove Ripper away and Lydia—"

Ethan shoved Remus away, "It wasn't my fault. I was trying— I thought— I don't get high to drive anyone away. I do it to forget. Everyone, in case you forgot, left me. Couldn't deal with what happened. What we did. What I did. Now with Lily…"

"How do you think I feel?" Remus whispered. Ethan slowly reached for Remus and when he didn't move away, Ethan pulled him into a hug. The werewolf sighed as he leaned into his at one time boyfriend. "Can I stay here? I don't want to go back home yet. I just can't take it anymore, too many reminders."

"Okay."

"Thank you." Remus kissed Ethan chastely on the mouth. Where before all their kisses had been heated and touches fevered, this was soft and slow. Remus pulled away and ducked his head.

"You can take the bed." Ethan said. "I've got a few things to take care of."

"Ethan—"

Ethan grabbed his jacket off a chair, "Bed's still where it was before." Then he grabbed his keys off the floor and walked out the door.

"Shit!" Ethan whispered. He locked his door and made his way back to the streets. Ethan walked briskly to a nearby wizard's pub. He went straight to the fireplace and grabbed some of the floo powder. He made signs over it and sprinkled something from his pocket onto it. Then instead of throwing it into the fireplace, he blew the mixture in. He stepped in and was immediately transported to another house.

As he stumbled out of the fireplace he found himself in some type of wizard's trap. A cell, a cage which he could not get out of unless the caster took down the spell. Ethan cursed and slammed his back against the wall of the cage. He slid down to the floor and prepared himself for a wait.

Finally Ethan heard some one come in through the front door which was in the next room. Lights flooded the room and Ethan had to cover his eyes. "Let me out of this fucking cage!" Ethan snarled.

"What? You forgot the password, you idiot?" Severus growled back.

"You changed the spell and you know it, this one doesn't accept a password." Ethan replied.

Severus waved his wand in Ethan's direction before slumping into a chair. "I take it you've heard then?"

Ethan sneered as he stood up, "Yea and I'm surprised you're not jumping for joy that Voldemort's dead," he paused, "as well as James Potter." He barely managed to get his arms up in time to block the vase thrown at his head.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!?" Severus screamed. "You actually think He's dead? That a little boy killed him by crying at him? You think I'd be happy Lily's husband is dead. Lily is dead Ethan as well. You think I wanted that. The child that I was made an unofficial uncle of will be alone. Harry will never know his mother or father." Severus grabbed Ethan's shoulders so he could look in his eyes. "Are you high or smashed or both? Cause if you are I'm locking you in a room until it's out of your system."

"Get off of me." Ethan muttered trying half heartily to get out of Severus's grip. "I'm fine."

"I'm fine." Severus mocked him. "You haven't been fine since you pledged yourself to Janus."

"Yea and you haven't been fun since you decided you needed to become a Death Eater spy." Ethan shot back.

"I was trying to protect my friends." Severus yelled.

"Protect your friends?" Ethan laughed, "Yeah that worked real well. I really want to thank you for your protection. I spend my nights remembering what your protection has done for me."

"Ethan."

"I'm sure Lily wou—" Ethan flinched when Severus's fist stopped an inch from his face. Someone was knocking at the door. Severus shoved Ethan back into the cage and reactivated it. "Stay there."

"Sev!" Ethan hissed as Severus walked away to answer the door. He could just barely hear the conversation being held at the door.

"Lucius what do you want?"

"To come in."

"Sorry I'm not taking visitors at the moment."

"I need to talk to you."

"About?"

"Matters that can only be discussed inside."

"Oh?"

"Yes Severus so step back and let me in."

"Fine."

Ethan shrunk back against the cage. "Fuck!" It just had to be Lucius didn't it. It couldn't be Rabastian or Bella or any other freaking Slytherin but Lucius fucking Malfoy.

"We're not going into the living room where you can have me sit while you go get me a nice hot beverage?"

"Don't push it Lucius. Did you actually come here to discuss something or just pester me?"

Ethan could just barely see them. Lucius grabbed Severus's arm. "Our Lord is dead. Killed by Potter's filthy spawn. And you stand here unaffected."

Severus removed his arm from Lucius's grip. "Of course I do, if I wish to continue his work when he returns. Appearances must be kept or are you so dumb as to think you can help the cause in Azkaban."

Lucius looked away. And unfortunately for Ethan it was in his direction. "Well what do we have here? If we're going to be acting good for a while we might have one last hoorah." Lucius smiled nastily at Ethan, "And even better it's Ethan Rayne. The Slytherin who turned into a muggle loving wiccan practicing piece of shit. The only person better would be Ripper Giles or maybe that Gryffindor Remus Lupin."

"Stay away from them!" Ethan shouted.

"Severus let him out of that cage I want to play with him again. He was so much fun last time. We can share him in fact."

Ethan's eyes filled with fear for a moment, then they hardened. "Oh please your pathetic attempts at torture are a laugh a minute."

Lucius frowned, "Still not broken are we? Well I'd love to fix that for you."

Ethan laughed, "You can try."

Lucius smirked and began to walk forward but Severus grabbed him. "He is mine. Go home Lucius."

The Death Eater's eyes shined, "At least let me watch Severus. He bleeds so pretty."

Ethan's hands formed into fists and he tried to not to back up. Severus gave a small smile, "Maybe next time."

Lucius sniffed, "Fine."

"Oh don't be like that Luc. I'll be sure to tell you all the details. Every cut," Severus made the cage disappear and grabbed Ethan before he could move, "every bruise," his fingers encircled the chaos mage's throat, "every scream," before running his wand down the side of Ethan's face making him flinch. "every whimper."

"Alright then. Be sure to take your time then." Lucius patted Severus on the shoulder. "See you later…" Lucius ran his fingernails down Ethan's cheek, "Eth." Then he left the room.

Severus waited till they heard the door slam before he let go of Ethan. Immediately Ethan fell to his knees. He began shivering and then he made himself stop. When he looked up at Severus his eyes were cold and hard, unfeeling. The sparkle in his eyes that had been present during his year at Hogwarts was gone. Ethan Rayne the flamboyant Slytherin teen was no more and Severus didn't like the man who stood in his place. Especially considering his spying was partly reasonable.

"I just wanted to ask you to tell Ripper what happened since he won't talk to me. I just thought he should know. Goodbye Severus." Ethan turned to walk away.

It was his name that did it. Severus had finally managed to get him to call him Sev a few years ago. Although after the "incident" Ethan no longer called him pet names. But he had never called him Severus not once. "Eth please, I'm sorry." Severus said, "I shouldn't have let him in the house. I wasn't going to let him hurt you. I promised you it would never happen again. Ethan please."

Ethan looked away, "I've got to get back home."

"Ethan." Severus frowned.

"Remus is there." Ethan said after a moment. "I have to get back to him… I'll see you later." Ethan disappeared into the fireplace.

"Bye Eth." Severus sighed. He threw off his robe onto a nearby chair. He took a breath and then he apparated away. He arrived outside the door to Ripper's flat. He knocked on the door, when it was opened Severus very nearly dropped his jaw. Ripper's hair was cut almost as short as Ethan's and his clothes… not a single tear on them.

"Severus." Ripper nodded.

Severus raised an eyebrow, why was Ripper calling him Severus? Ripper always called him Sev, he said that Severus was too stuffy for him. "Ripper—"

"I go by Rupert."

Severus frowned, "Very well." He adopted the same business like tone as Ripper. "I need to tell you something. So if you could let me in?"

Ripper's stance became rigid, "If this about Ethan I've told you I don't want to talk about him. So unless you have something else to tell me Sev I mean Severus you can be on your way."

He could take this from Ethan he deserved that but not from Ripper. "Pull your damn wand out of your ass and let me in." Severus hissed. 

Ripper was about to sniff as if he was highly offended. Then he looked at Severus really looked at him. The clothes that he was wearing were acceptable for the muggle world however they were severely rumbled. His combat boots that were usually shined to perfection were streaked with mud. His hair though it was stuffed into a ponytail; it was very wavy almost in curls as if he hadn't time to use the straightening spell he liked so much. He was paler than usual and he had bags under his eyes. Ripper dropped his whole "Call me Rupert" façade. He stepped out of the way of the door. His stance became more relaxed, his shoulders slightly hunched, and a small grin crept onto his face. Severus noticed the change and sighed inwardly. After Ripper locked his door, he led them to the sitting room. They sat in opposite chairs facing each other. "So what is it Sev?"

"Lord Voldemort killed Lily and James Potter." Severus said after a moment.

"Shit." Ripper took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

"You're taking this a lot better then I thought you would." Severus said gently.

"What do you want me do you want me to do Sev? Run around screaming? Punch my fist through a wall so I break my hand? Abandon the wizarding world and run back to my father? That didn't help any with Lydia, why would it help now? I've learned to control my anger Severus." Ripper crossed his arms and looked away, "What happened?"

"Lord Vold—"

"Call him Lord one more time, see what happens."

"Voldemort learned of a prophecy that concerned either the Longbottoms' or Potters' child. He went after Harry. They were placed under a secret keeper, Peter Pettigrew who turned to Voldemort with that information. And as you know Voldemort isn't someone who sits on information very well. He slaughtered James and then Lily but when he got to Harry the spell backfired on him. The fucking idiot forgot about the most whitest magic out there. Lily and James sacrificed their lives to try and save their child. That type of love forms a protection magic around Harry that not even Avada Kedavra can break." Severus said.

"What happened to Pettigrew?" Ripper asked.

"Sirius Black killed him along with 13 other muggles in the middle of the fucking street in broad daylight. The largest piece of that rat that they could find was a finger. But he's being honored because before Black managed to blow him up Pettigrew shouted something like, "How dare you betray Lily and James you'll pay for what you did." Crafty bastard. Black's in Azkaban now." Severus shook his head.

"And what of the last Marauder?"

"He's with Ethan." Severus raised an eyebrow waiting for Ripper's response.

Ripper let out a breath he had been holding, "So is that then?"

Severus gave him a disgusted look, "Is that it? Slytherin's Ghost man, have you lost all your passion." Ripper said nothing. "Yes that's it." Severus spat out. He got up to leave but just before he shut the door he said, "Goodbye Rupert."

Severus started walking away, he was too angry to concentrate at the moment and didn't feel like forcing himself too. What the hell happened to his friends? They were so different, so without life. Ethan without his boy-like mischief and innocence. Ripper without his—

There was a huge explosion. Severus looked in the direction of the sound. A car had flipped over and the undercarriage was on fire. Severus looked back and saw Ripper on his balcony, hand pointed in the direction of the burning car. So maybe he hadn't completely lost all of his fire.

Ripper looked down at Severus and mouthed, 'Get out of here' Severus nodded and ran into an alleyway.

Ripper quickly went back into his flat before any of his neighbors could see him. He threw himself into a chair breathing heavily. He had to have better control then this. Blowing up cars how did that help anything? 'Makes me feel better' Ripper shoved that thought away. If he ever wanted a slayer of his own he had to show control, restraint, be like Travers. Then Ripper made a face. Maybe he wouldn't have a stick shoved that far up his ass. Ripper rubbed a hand over his face.

Then he pushed himself out of his chair. He grabbed a bowl and dumped out its contents before filling it with water. He placed it on the table and then grabbed some herbs from a locked chest. Ripper sat before the bowl and stared at it. He paused frowning for a moment, "Fuck it." He almost left his seat but instead threw the handful of herbs over the bowl. Ripper closed his eyes tightly before opening them. An image was floating in the water.

Remus lay on one side of the enormous bed and Ethan lay on the other side. He was sweating heavily. His body was rigid and he was frowning. Ripper knew if he had been able to hear he would have been hearing whimpers of pain. Ripper wondered what nightmare this was. He had so many, but he thought they had been going away. Ethan had bitten through his bottom lip even that wasn't enough to wake him from this particular nightmare.

"Oh Eth." Ripper sighed.

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"Oh Eth."

I lifted my head, "Severus help me please."

Severus laughed, "You wanted to be noble. You had a choice the werewolf or yourself. You chose the werewolf." Severus leaned close to me so he could whisper, "I'm so glad you did, you bleed so pretty."

That's not what he said

I looked over to the side at the same time as Severus. Lucius was looking at a bunch of bloody instruments. He picked up a knife before glancing back at me and smiling. There was blood covering his face.

He had a mask on

"Sev please I can't take anymore."

"Then perhaps we should end it for you."

"Lydia?"

She wasn't there. She's—

"Oh allow me. I would love to carry out this particular plan for you."

I shook my head and blood fell into my eyes. "Randy?"

"Really Ethan how many times do I have to correct you? It's Randall." Randall scolded wagging a finger in my direction.

He's dead

Lydia pulled out a dagger, "Now who should have the honors?"

This is wrong

"Lucius?" Severus suggested.

"I think he's had enough fun. It's our turn." Randall said before turning to Lydia. "How about you snake of my heart?"

This didn't happen

Lydia frowned as she spun the dagger in her hand, "Eww Randall you can not do endearments. Stop trying."

This isn't real

"But sure I'd love to." Lydia started to walk towards me.

This is not real

"Lydia please, I'm sorry, don't do this please. Lydia." I begged.

She smiled and suddenly became disfigured. "Don't worry I'll make sure it doesn't hurt much."

"No please." I whispered.

Wake up

She raised the dagger high, "Be seeing you." And plunged down.

WAKE UP!

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Ethan screamed as he came too.

"Ethan are you okay? Remus grabbed Ethan's arm, saving him from landing on the floor.

The shivering mage pushed himself back onto the bed, "I'm fine Remy. You can let go now."

Remus tried to brush away a tear that had trailed down Ethan's cheek, "You don't look fine."

Ethan moved his head out of reach, "Just go back to sleep."

"What about you?"

Ethan untangled his legs from the covers and got out of bed. "I'll be right back." He walked of the room before Remus could say anything else. Ethan went into his kitchen and began rummaging around in the drawers. Finally he pulled out a pill bottle. He quickly downed a few pills. Ethan tried to walk back to his room but instead tumbled to the floor. "Shit maybe I grabbed 4."

"You idiot."

Ethan managed to roll his head back to see Remus standing over him. "Go away I'm fine." Ethan mumbled.

Remus snorted, "Sure you are." He managed to pull Ethan up off the floor and get him back into the bedroom. Remus got himself and Ethan settled so that his arms were around the other man.

"Don't need you to cuddle me." Ethan muttered even as he snuggled deeper into Remus's embrace.

"Yea I know."

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end


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